Aitken Alexander Associates Ltd - Literary Agency London, UK

Sisters Of Sinai: How Two Lady Adventurers Unearthed the Hidden Gospels

In 1892, two adventurous sisters made one of the most important religious finds of the century. Hidden amongst the scrolls in the monastery library on Mount Sinai, they spotted what looked like a palimpsest: one text written over another. Agnes Smith was able to recognise the underlying document for what it was – a manuscript that remains to this day one of the earliest known copies of the Bible written in ancient Syriac, a dialect close to the Aramaic spoken by Jesus and his disciples. It had taken Agnes and Margaret great courage to get to Mount Sinai in the first place. But their adventures were only just beginning. In this enthralling book, Janet Soskice uses the story of the Smith sisters to take the reader on a truly nineteenth-century journey. Partly it is a physical one: we trace the footsteps of the admirable Agnes and Margaret as they voyage to Egypt, Sinai and beyond, clutching their Murray's guidebook, and enduring camels and unscrupulous dragomen. But it is also a journey of discovery, for this was an era when Faith was being questioned, when important discoveries were being made about the origins of the Bible and its dissemination into different lands and languages, and when Europe was beginning to discover the East. Lastly, and most movingly, it is the emotional journey of Agnes and Margaret, who embarked as young women eager for an education, who became grieving widows in search of adventure, and who ended as recognized scholars determined not to let their sex stand in their way.

Author:

Janet Soskice

Publisher:

Chatto & Windus

Publication Date:

July 2006

ISBN:

0701173416

Agent:

Clare Alexander

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